
Thank you for downloading the replication files for "Convergent Flexibility:
How International Law Keeps Pace with Technological Change."

The folder should contain five files:
1. README.txt - you found it.
2. cf_registration.csv - Registration survey containing baseline covariate and metadata information.
3. cf_experiment.csv - Data from randomized experiment containing main results.
4. cf_replicationcode.R - R code to replicate results, figures, and tables.
5. cf_loaddata.R - R code to load the raw data for further exploration or reuse.

STEPS: Place the CSV files in a recognizable directory (eg. "/Users/user/file location"). Set your working directory in your preferred data analysis software (RStudio is recommended). Load both files and run the code to merge CSVs on common IDs (Synthetic_ID, LawSocID). You are all set!

NOTE: Version differences may produce warnings or errors. BART code (Section A.3, line 1238) is especially sensitive. This section uses the bartMachine package which requires a local Java installation. It is recommended that you run this code on a machine with lots of RAM and parallel processing capabilities. Your system may not assign sufficient RAM to RStudio by default, in which case the bartMachine code will crash. Code to assist Mac/Unix users is included at the beginning of Section A.3 (lines 1247:1265). If you still encounter RAM errors even after launching RStudio from terminal with JAVA_TOOL_OPTIONS, solutions can be found online. For other questions, please refer to the bartMachine reference materials: https://cran.r-project.org/web/packages/bartMachine/index.html.

Please report any mistakes or errors to the author (Justin Canfil) at: jcanfil@cmu.edu.